There has been a ton of heat on Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell, but there's never been a more validating victory than this one.
Penn State had a 98.5% chance of winning this game with 8:09 remaining in the fourth quarter, according to ESPN Analytics. In the end, UW pulled out a 24-20 victory, despite trailing 17-0 in the second quarter.
Quarterback Colton Joseph threw three interceptions, but the Badgers' defense kept him and the rest of the offense in this game.
Nittany Lions' QB Rocco Becht looked human, and that's something that doesn't happen very often. He was held to 114 passing yards in a game that saw Joseph throw for 235.
As part of Fickell's post-game press conference, he discussed everything that went down during the win.
Fickell on how satisfying this win was
"I
don't know that there's any tougher situation than what we were out there in today," he said. "Nothing makes you more proud. To see how they went about it, I don't know if I've had one more special... "To have it the way they did, you couldn't write it any better."
Fickell discusses winning by four points
"Maybe at the end of the game the scoreboard doesn't tell the story here. There's a lot more things that happened in this game that grew for us, that I don't know that I would want to go through again, but it's great that we did," Fickell said.
He continued, "The things that go into getting to those final results, this one right here is going to last a long time."
Did the Badgers ever consider a QB change?
"We never did," Fickell told reporters. With the way he saw not only Joseph reacting on the sideline, but also the offensive line and the defense, he knew it was the right call to keep the Old Dominion transfer in this game.
Fickell added, "He [Joseph] thanked me for sticking with him and believing in him and he thanked the team."
"We believe in him."
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This article originally appeared on Badgers Wire: Everything Luke Fickell said after beating Penn State in Happy Valley
